I don't get U2, who's buying them? While I agree that there is a lot of todays music I hate to hear, I have a 16year old. I remember my father hating emerson lake & palmer, black sabbath,& my other's. Who knows which struggling band will produce a "dark side of the moon"? I really HATE rap, but it might morph into who knows what. The thing I see is less ability to play basic music. They are crippled by dependence on massive distortion, drivel lyrics.

Yes. The problem is no one can read or play music. And when I say that, I mean instruments. We are in the sample and computer age. My bands were bands, played instruments and read music. There are very few examples like Alicia Keys, (whether you like her music or not, she can play and write her own stuff) out here today.
In fact, if it wasn`t for our music back in the day, where would any of these groups, singers, be today.

I joined also to reply to this thread. The problem is where to begin, so I'll do it alphabetically.
A - AC/DC - Shrieking over brain-numbing pseudo-melody. Just how many drugs did their fans take?
Aerosmith - A bunch of never-weres who survived rehab long enough to somehow join forces with Fossil Rock Radio to reinvent history and claim they were actually once relevant. I don't know about most of you, but listening to radio in the 70s, when a DJ said he was playing the hottest band from Boston it meant the J Geils Band, and then Boston, never these clowns.
B - Bon Jovi - As someone who lives in New Jersey, I know these hacks are considered the biggest embarassment to the state after the smell of the oil refineries. Sings every note like he's passing a kidney stone, the lamest guitar gimmicks ever, and lyrics that couldn't win a second grade poetry contest. Also the biggest Springsteen wannabe ever. What's that, Bruce did a country/folk album? Let me hook up with an equally second-rate country band so I can be just like him. As the crowd used to sing in the Jersey shore bar when the DJ played his garbage "Sing like a dog, my songs are lame, I give Jersey a bad name."
Beastie Boys - there must be some kind of joke here that I'm not in on, otherwise I'd rather have white-hot needles jammed in my ears than listen to them.
C - Coldplay - Whiny, pretentious garbage.
D - DMB - see Coldplay. This guy's caterwauling reminds me of the sound a coyote must make if it is caught in a steel trap.
E - Eminem - No comment necessary.
F - 50 Cent - see Eminem
G - David Gray - overwraught, melodramatic singing is OK, just not on EVERY SINGLE SONG.
Guns & Roses - If I want to listen to a shrieking heroin addict, I'll go to a rehab clinic.
H- Bruce Hornsby - boring on his own. Must be a nice guy since he works with a lot of people, just works better than Ambien at putting me to sleep.
"Hair" bands - I know I already mentioned the worst of them, Bon Jovi, but this may have been the worst trend ever in rock music.
J - Jack Johnson - This guy is SOOOOOOOOOO boring, he makes Bruce Hornsby and James Taylor come off like Little Richard.
In the interest of editing, I'll conclude with the letter
M - John Mayer - You can't convince me this guy didn't get beat up every day in school or get his head flushed more than once. Lame, syrupy blathering, sings like he has a mouthful of scalding hot soup, and if he is a "Guitar God" like one publication claims, then the Pittsburgh Pirates are the best team in baseball.
Madonna - Her only true talent is conning people into thinking she has any at all. Let's put it this way: if she had an entire hour to herself on MTV Unplugged, what do you think she could do? Without all the overdubs and distractions of dozens of dancers onstage? What instrument would she play? The even bigger shame is that she spawned an entire generation of lip-synching phonies in Britney, Jessica, Spice Girls, etc.

If you want to include Styx Journey and Chicago on the worst bands list, who do you think are good bands. I would be interested in knowing this.

Instead... they suck because...
Journey... Greg Rolie leaves the band and they get Steve Perry. They go super sucky but I give it to them Steve can sing that Cheese. Perry leaves... which means that the singer who made them popular has bailed... even more suck city.

Styx... like bad theater with a couple of good guitar players... the singer who made them popular leaves... and they actually get better!!! But they can't find the keys to the car so they're stuck in suck city.

Chicago... they start out with a lot of promise. Great guitar player & singer, stabby jabby horns... a good drummer... and slowly they spiral down the drain into the MOR city of suck. So much so the guy who made them tolerable accidently/possibly/definitely commits the 'cide. I just bet he was listening to demos from the next LP.
R.I.P TK.
R.I.P Chitown?
But Noooooooooooooo, they go on for years and years and years. They hang out with the Beach Boys (or what's called the Beach Boys I mean there are no Wilson Bros left?) and collect paydays by playing at cemeteries/state fairs. Does anybody really know what time it is? Time to die.
TODAY'S suck city bands are too easy.
Good Carlotta
Avril Lalame
Everything on the 1 music show on MTV
All these bands that sound exactly like the other one
and a special place (even though he's not a musician... but he's not a comedian either)
DANE COOK

OMGawd!
KL, I know I love your reviews @ http://www.avrev.com/ because 1) you're both a great critic and a great writer, and most importantly 2) we almost always agree
but
this post was perfect! When I read it I tried to remember when it was I wrote it.

Who do I think are good bands? Start at the top of our Top 10 Rock Bands of All Time list http://www.avrev.com/bands/
and work your way down.

(You will see Journey at #55 -- a massive embarrassment, but we had certain criteria and sales figured prominently and that's how Journey snuck in. Take away their high sales score and they almost drop off our list.)

As to your previous digs:
I can't say I'm a Kid Rock fan, no, but I give the guy credit for attitude. He knows and honors the roots like few today. One example: I was at the taping of one of the Willie Nelson tributes in '04, and when Jerry Lee Lewis hobbled on, surrounded by an amazing band including Willie and Merle and Keith Richards on guitars and backing vocals, and seemed tentative at best, Kid Rock stepped in, without grabbing the spotlight, and cajoled the Killer in just the right way to be the Killer, and he warmed up and grinned and transformed in front of our eyes and brought the house down. This is not the first time I've seen that side of KR, and I will always respect him (if not his music) for it. (That special also included Al Green, Rickie Lee Jones, the outstanding Holmes Brothers, Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynne, an unannounced last-minute walk-on by Bob Dylan (who should've stayed home -- took several takes on "You Win Again," none of them that good) ,an amazing "Pressure Drop" from Toots Hibbert and Ben Harper, and a surpisingly good Toby Keith, rednecked but righteous . . . OK, so maybe KL and I don't always agree.)
And ZZ Top -- a guilty pleasure, at worst. They may have been playing the same chords and basically the same song for 37 years, but damn!! it's a great rockin' song. And talk about attitude?! Who gives less of a f*** than these guys? Everybody in the band who wasn't named Beard grew foot-long-plus beards nearly 30 years ago -- hardly hip on a young rock star -- and have kept them through the 21st Century, even through an offer from Gillette in '84 to beards Gibbons and Hill for a million dollars each if they'd shave them for a commercial. Talk about your artistic integrity! (A mil meant something then.)